Overview for Marine Prawns and Shrimps

Marine prawns, tastier and costlier than their freshwater counter parts, have become an avenue to earn foreign exchange by the developing countries of South East Asia including India. The share of prawn in marine products exports from India is approximately 60 percent in quantity and around 80 per cent in terms of value. Sea food export industry of the country with a humble beginning of rupees 50 lakhs has grown to an organized industry, earning valuable foreign exchange of Rs. 8363.53 crores in 2006 exporting 612641 tonnes.

Marine prawn fishery, which supports the export industry, is generally confined to shallow coastal areas within 40 metres depth. Most of the prawn species breed throughout the year. Their growth differs according to the species and locality and most of them live for about two years.

Besides identification and distribution of marine prawns, the habitats they prefer for living have been described along with the occurrence of important penaeid prawns around world’s oceans. The bionomics of commercial varieties of some penaied prawns have been outlined in the book, mentioning their growth, fecundity, spawning and larval development. Resources and landings of marine prawn forming the commercial fishery along Indian coasts have been given in details along with the catching methods in different areas.

Postharvest, handling and transport of prawns from the landing centers to the consumers and their preservation from deterioration and spoilage have been described in details in the book.

Due to stagnation of marine catch and to cope up the great demand of prawn in the international markets, culture of prawns in marine and brackish water ecosystem through the spread of new innovations and technology for industrial production have been outlined in the book. Informations on the deep sea and rare varieties of decapod crustaceans, such as, krill, spotted shrimp opossum shrimp is an additional attraction of the book.

K P Biswas (Author)

K.P. Biswas, M.Sc., Ph.D., D.F.Sc. (Bom), Fisheries (L-I), Principal, Fisheries Training Institute, Government of Orissa, part time lecturer in fisheries college, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Manager fisheries Orissa Maritime and Chilka Area Development Corporation, Bhubaneswar, Director of Fisheries, Adnaman and Nicobar Island, Visiting Professor, University of Fisheries and Animal Sciences, Govt. of West Bengal and at present as Visiting Professor of Marine Science Department , Calcutta University has been associated with fish and fisheries science and its development for more than 46 years. He has specialized in electro fisheries, sea fishing, fish breeding and industrial fisheries and has published 125 research papers, review papers, and articles on fish and fisheries, besides publishing seven book in the field of fisheries. The author has worked as a member of the Fact Finding Committee of Chilka Lake Fisheries, appointed by the Hon'ble High court of Orissa and also as a member of the Expert Committee of Government of Orissa on the environmental impact of trawl fishery on the coastal ecology and extuaries with special reference to migration and nesting of Olive Redley turtles in Orissa coast. He is now actively engaged as a Fellow Member and Vice President of Zoological Society, Kolkata, Fellow Member of Indian Association of Biological Sciences life Member of Indian Science Congress Association, Indian Science News Assocation, Bangiya Bignan Parisad, Centre for Applied Science and Technology and published about fifty articles and research papers on fisheries and aquatic environment and marine ecology between 1993 to 2003.